Top Boston-Based Marketing and Engineering Execs Join Abine

BOSTON, Jan. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Abine, a leading provider of online privacy solutions for consumers looking to regain control over their personal information, announced today that it has appointed Kristina Kennedy as vice president of marketing and Brian Michon as vice president of engineering. These strategic appointments of two well-respected Boston-based high tech executives will increase the company's capability to meet the growing consumer demand for its suite of privacy tools.

Bill Kerrigan, CEO of Abine and formerly McAfee's executive vice president of Worldwide Consumer Business, has formed an executive team that is poised to build on the company's early success and work toward expanding Abine's impact as the leader in consumer online privacy. Abine projects the number of Internet users in North America using anti-tracking tools and services will be 28.1 million by the end of 2012, up from 17.2 million today.

"At Abine, our mission is 100% focused on our customers and giving consumers control back over their personal information online," Kerrigan said. "Kristina and Brian's background building strong consumer brands with customer focus makes them a great match for Abine."

As VP of marketing, Kennedy joins Abine with extensive experience building high-growth consumer–web brands, having most recently filled marketing roles at Zipcar and Gazelle.

"The idea of building technology-based solutions that solve real problems for consumers is my passion," said Kristina Kennedy. "I believe online privacy is a huge concern and that consumers will need experts in their corner. I'm thrilled to join the Abine team to build a brand and products that deliver real value to web users."

Kennedy earned her BA from the University of Notre Dame. Prior to joining Abine, she was an integral part of Zipcar's marketing team, leading communications throughout North America and the UK as the company achieved exponential growth. Most recently, Kennedy held a leadership role at Gazelle where she managed a team responsible for brand, communications, and acquisition activities. During her tenure, the company grew to more than 250,000 customers and achieved 5753% revenue growth, ranking in #35 in INCMagazine's list of America's fastest growing private companies.

As VP of marketing at Abine, Kennedy will lead the marketing team and function. In this role, she will be charged with overseeing all marketing for Abine's brand, website, and products.

As vice president of engineering, Brian Michon brings extensive software development experience to Abine after serving in executive and technology positions at Intuit, Linden Lab, and consumer-web startups such as Apps.com.

"I joined Abine for two reasons: the stellar, dedicated team of technology innovators and their mandate to improve a user's control over information and web experience," said Michon. "I am thrilled to lead Abine's engineering team and wrestle these massive technology challenges into easy-to-use solutions for millions of consumers."

Prior to joining Abine, Michon consulted on platform modernization and high velocity engineering practices for startups like EchoNest and enterprises such as BlackBaud. At Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, Michon ran the server engineering team responsible for delivering virtual world services to a hundred thousand global concurrent users running 3D simulation on a grid of approximately 32,000 processors. Michon joined Linden Lab from Intuit where he was the vice president of Shared Development and Services, delivering software platform and product services that improved both the development speed and the end user experience for customers of TurboTax, QuickBooks, Quicken, and payroll businesses. Intuit acquired Michon's startup Apps.com in 2000.

Brian earned his MSCS from Stanford and a BSCS from MIT. In his spare time, he directs the technology board at Boston Rising, a new anti-poverty startup in Boston.

Abine is backed by premier venture capital firms Atlas Ventures and General Catalyst Partners. Earlier last year, it closed its series A round, raising $5.2 million. This capital, combined with its expanded executive team, prime the company for growth and foreshadow the launch of simple, consumer-friendly online privacy tools that will set the standard in the industry.

About AbineAbine provides consumers with online privacy solutions that are innovative, easy to use, and actually work. Abine's products let people enjoy the web while retaining control over their personal information. Abine: The Online Privacy Company.™ Abine.com